On the surface, one may think that SSDs are similar to conventional hard drives, but that is far from the truth. While today's SSDs are being used to emulate hard drives, they are a totally different technology that only recently has been explored for consumer usage. Both manufacturers and hardcore enthusiasts are still learning about this technology, how it operates and functions, etc. For example, it is still not fully known how SSDs will perform in the long run, after years of use.

Furthermore, 99% of the software titles that we use today, including operating systems, were optimized for use with mechanical hard drives. This alone presents several challenges for those looking to get the most out of their SSD. Fortunately, OCZ has an outstanding support forum where end users as well as OCZ employees are constantly working and sharing ideas and tweaks for their SSDs. The information here is plentiful and invaluable. I spent countless hours here reading up on different methods and tweaks, some of which I will be discussing and using here today.

Finally I want to mention that I will be giving a bit of feedback on the overall system performance outside of benchmark numbers- how the system feels and responds, stuttering, etc. Numbers are great and all, but they don't paint the entire picture and can sometimes be deceiving, especially since none of the benches we will be using were designed for SSD use.

All testing was conducted on my main test system, consisting of the following hardware: